Northern Iraq might be the most expensive place on the globe to buy a gun, and if you’re Arab, it could prove impossible.

In the largely Kurdish region where natives are battling desperately to keep ruthless Islamic State fighters at bay, Russian-made AK-47s sell for $700, handguns start at $1,200 and U.S.-made M-16s fetch as much as $3,000. Everyday Kurds are taking up arms to protect their families and those seeking to join the Peshmerga, the Kurdish army, have to bring their own weapons to the front lines.


But not everyone’s money is good. Although Arabs have lived side-by-side with Kurds in the region for centuries, many Kurds say they don’t trust Arab Iraqis given Islamic State’s growing influence.

“I wouldn’t sell a gun to an Arab if you gave me $1 million,” one operator of a shop in of Sulemaniyah told FoxNews.com.

Similar markets have popped up in other towns around the region, including Kirkuk, where vendors display their goods on upturned boxes, lined against walls, piled on tables and hanging from pegs. Weapons are everywhere -  Kalashnikovs, M-16s, M-4s, rocket-propelled grenades, handguns  and even heavy-caliber weapons can be bought at the right price.

One vendor said Peshmerga soldiers qualified for a 50 percent discount, even recommending highly affordable pre-1980 AK-47s from a well-stocked inventory. Two years ago, an AK-47 sold for $300 here, but when civil war broke out in Syria, prices rose to an all-time high of $1,500. They’ve settle back to about  $700.